COMPOSER SHOWCASE

Bruce Mather: Biography

BRUCE MATHER was
born in Toronto on May 9, 1939, but has made Montréal his home since 1966
and is considered one of Québec's most important composers. He studied
piano with Alberto Guerrero and composition with Oskar Morzwetz, Godfrey
Ridout and John Weinzweig at the Royal Conservatory in Toronto and at the
Faculty of Music at the University of Toronto, completing his Bachelor's
degree in 1959. Post graduate studies took him to France where he worked
with Darius Milhaud (composition), whom he had met previously at the summer
course in Aspen, and Olivier Messiaen (analysis). Mather did his Masters
at Standford University with Leland Smith and received his doctorate from
the University of Toronto in 1967. He has taught composition, analysis
and harmony at McGill University since 1966 and has been the director of
the Contemporary Music Ensemble there since 1981. As a pianist, Mather
actively promotes contemporary music and has performed widely with his
wife Pierrette LePage as the Mather/LePage piano duo.

Mather's music has
been performed regularly throughout Canada and is frequently heard in the
United States and Europe. Beginning with Cycle Rilke in 1960,
written while Mather was studying in France, many of his works have been
broadcast by French national radio. On three occasions his pieces have
been presented by the CBC at the International Rostrum of Composers (Symphonic
Ode in 1965; Madrigal II in 1969; Sonata for
2 pianos in 1971). Mather has been commissioned by many important orchestras
and contemporary music organizations at home and abroad, including the
Montréal Symphony Orchestra, the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation, Radio France, the Société de musique contemporaine
du Québec, Toronto New Music Concerts, the Esprit Orchestra, the Rouen
Chamber Orchestra, Trio Basso (Cologne) and the Collectif musical international
de Champigny (2e2m). In 1979 he won the most prestigious composition prize
in Canada, the Jules Léger Prize for new chamber music with Musique
pour Champiny. In recognition of Mather's numerous works inspired
by fine wines, he was initiated into the "Confrérie des Chevaliers
du Tastevin" at the Château Clos de Bougeot in 1987. Three years later,
the SMCQ, an organization he had been associated with since its inception,
celebrated Mather's 50th birthday and his two great passions, music and
wine, in a concert at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Montréal. In 1993, he won
the Jules Léger Prize a second time with another wine-inspired work, Yquem for
4 pianos and 4 ondes Martenot. Mather's first Opera La Princesse
Blance, was premiered in Montréal in February, 1994. In the year
2000 the Émile Nelligan Foundation awarded him its Serge Garant Prize for
his work as a whole.